Sunday, January 21, 2018

Teachers who commit certain forms of sexual abuse allowed to keep their licences

Bill 37, the Protecting Students Act, "should be strengthened," said MPP PeggySattler, NDP critic. "Very serious and egregious sexual misconduct can take placethat doesn't fall into those specific acts and should be grounds for revocation of alicence."

The messages came in from her high school teacher, sometimes until 2 a.m.

“I want to see you naked,” one read. “Please don’t leave me.”

“If I lose you, I’ll die.”

The teacher was Richard S. Buckley, and he taught the girl in Ontario’s Bluewater District School Board, south of Owen Sound. When her vice-principal was tipped off and began to investigate what was going on in the spring of 2014, Buckley contacted the girl in a panic.

He was going to kill himself, he told her, according to an agreed statement of facts in his case. He pleaded with her not to tell administrators what happened between them.

Though Buckley later pleaded guilty to psychological and sexual abuse of his student in a November 2016 disciplinary hearing at the Ontario College of Teachers, his teaching licence was not revoked.

Ontario law doesn’t require teachers who have committed certain kinds of sexual abuse to lose their licences. (more...)